Public Acceptability of Burnt Brick for Mass Housing Projects in Ilorin, Nigeria

Abstract

Mass housing programmes have not yielded much in Nigeria due to high cost of provision arising from utilization of conventional building materials; thus, people have continued to live in substandard, overcrowded and dilapidated houses which have socio-psychological effects on the well-being of residents.  This paper   therefore, conducted an opinion survey based on the experience of developed countries of the world such as America and Brazil by assessing People’s perception on the utilisation of Burnt brick for Mass housing projects. The study uses Ilorin, the seat of one of the Federal Universities in Nigeria where Housing problem is pronounced as a case study. Multistage random sampling was used in selecting 216 respondents from the three senatorial districts in the city, while questionnaire forms the basic instrument for data collection. The data collected were analyzed using Frequency counts, Percentage and Chi-square.

The paper found out that 81.2% of the respondents have knowledge of the material, out of which 73.3% are willing to utilise it. However, reasons for willingness to utilise the material include quality (53.3%), cost effectiveness (52.1%), availability (58.5%), income (13.6%) and recommendation (4.4%), while chi-square test of perception shows that, People’s perception on the utilisation of the material does not  differ  at 0.05 level of significance. The paper concludes based on the findings above, that in order to achieve sustainable housing provision in Nigeria, the material should be incorporated into housing policies and programs which should not be at the exclusive preserve of Federal Government and at the exclusion of State and Local governments.

Key words: Mass housing projects, Conventional building material, Burnt brick, incorporation,                                         Sustainable housing provision.